wrath of the Sea Queen (174 page)

Apparently,
nurse Marlata
developed
a theory
of her own
about what happened, but was unable to officially report it without
supporting evidence
.
  N
urse Marlata explained that only one nurse handled the blood that evening.  Prior to that, the units were clean, and no units tested after
ward
were contaminated.  The only
units
affected were the ones th
is
young nurse touched.

"
You believe this nurse intentionally contaminated the blood?  Why would she do something like that?
"
  Salma could hardly believe what she was hearing.

"
The poor lady is troubled.  She suffered a terrible assault
when
s
he was a teenager and has never been the same since.  It turned out that two of the accident victims were
the same
men who assaulted her.  I
believe that when she was
confronted with both of them
that night, it
caused her to do something drastic. 
I
think she injected something
into the blood bags, but I could not find proof of it
. 
She hid her tracks well.  However,
she
had to do it before the blood bags were hung,
so
she could not know which bags those two men would receive.  Therefore, the young lady ended up
poison
ing
the blood given to
all of the accident victims,
"
the nurse
offered her theory for Salma's consideration
.

"
Can you tell me this lady
's name
?  If I can convince her to talk to me
without fear of prosecution
, maybe there is still a chance that I can help Pete.
"

"
I will tell you that her
first
name is Lorrie, but that is all I will tell you.  I think it best to
let you figure out the rest on your own.  I could get into trouble for telling you as much as I have, but I would really like to see at least one of those vic
tims saved, if at all possible. 
I am aware that
Pete is the only one left
.
"

"
Thank you for your help, Ella.
"

"
You're welcome. 
I hope
the information is
use
ful
.
"
 

Salma hung up the phone
.  O
ne mystery
was
solved only to have another take its place.  She already knew that C
a
eli's friend Lara recommended the energy bars.  Salma
had
also s
een
the school yearbook
photo
that Ben
shared with
Vin
earlier
.  Only it wasn't Lara.  It was the lady she
saw
with Scott at the arena and
again
at the seminar.  Ben said it was Apela's sister, Lorrie.  It took Salma a
bit more research and a short
while to put the pieces together, but it finally
made
sense.  If Lorrie
is actually
Lara, then it
is
a safe bet that Lorrie
was
the anonymous female who
sent
Salma the threatening letters after Pete's father died.  He would have been the sheriff who helped her after the assault.  Lorrie would have thought
highly
of the man.

Naturally,
Lorrie
would have known him well enough to be upset by his death, even if she caused it herself by poisoning him along with the other
victim
s.  And
Lara/Lorrie
knew C
a
eli
, too
.  It was not a stretch for her to find out that Salma and C
a
eli were related, which explained why she would want to hurt C
a
eli.  Salma understood that because she
did
not respond to Maku's letters
or help
his
father, Lorrie
now
blamed her for the death of Maku's father.  That
wa
s why C
a
eli
was
made to suffer the
exact
same poison.  It was Salma's fault.  If only she had written a letter, picked up a phone,
or done
anything at all
, p
erhaps all of this could have been avoided.  Knowing
the answer
did
n
o
t help lessen Salma's guilt. 

But, C
a
eli recovered
from the poison
and was healing, at least from that incident.  Unfortunately for Pete, he did not have C
a
eli's
resilient
blood, nor did he have her ability to
wash
the toxins from his system or
heal
as quickly as she could.  The chemicals bonded to
Pete's
blood were killing him.  The doctors
had
already tried the obvious treatments, but the chemicals could not be separated.  Transfusions were not enough, and Pete could not afford them if they
were
.  This did
n
o
t deter Salma.  She devised a plan that might work, but wanted to talk to Ben first, to make sure her thoughts on the matter were
not clouded by her personal guilt
.

CHAPTER
40

The lady st
anding
aft of the small boat
sadly
watch
ed
the shore disappear as the men rowed further out to sea.  Rika was traveling with her father and brother to a city on the distant island.  The trip was going to be a long one, and she was not looking forward to their arrival. 

For years, Rika enjoyed a modest amount of respect
in her village because
of her ability
to devise new ways to increase their bounty from the sea.  She could relate to the water, and that relationship provided her with a keen insight.  Rika shared her knowledge with the tribe elders, and they soon learned to value her ideas.  This elevated her and her family to a high status among her people.  The elders even granted Rika a position of leadersh
ip as a member of their council, an unprecedented appointment for a woman and for someone so young.
 

This arrangement worked well for nearly a decade.  Rika was content to live this life until the day she met a
very special
man.  She was walking along the shore
on
e
day
when a storm blew in suddenly
and
caught
her
out in the open
.  There was
no shelter
available
for several miles
, but
Rika was not frightened.  She did not feel threatened by the large swells building in the distance, and the rain cool
ed her skin
a
s she inhaled
the
refresh
ing the air
.  It was only when a large wave rolled toward the coast that Rika realized her village could be destroyed if the water travelled far enough inland. 

Rika
thought it was a
brilliant notion to attempt to use her
understanding of
the sea to save her people.  She tried to connect with the water and stop the monster headed straight for her.  It was a selfless undertaking, but more than she could handle on her own.  Her talent was not
fully developed.  She was not fluent
enough
with its use to succeed
in
such an undertaking
.  Without assistance,
Rika
might save her village, but she would not survive
to celebrate the victory
.

Her bravery and sheer determination
c
aught the attention of a man who
had
just
emerged victoriously from a
nearby
fight
.  Unbeknownst to Rika, it was his unseen fight that indirectly caused her predicament.  He was so moved by her
spirit
, that he
rushed to her side and offered the aid she would need to accomplish her task. 
This particular man
was one of a
select
few
capable of
sav
ing
her.  His angelic strength and mastery of the elements, added to her efforts, succeeded in stopping the water.  As soon as the immediate threat was
nullified
, he took a moment to look at the woman he
had
rescued. 
In addition to
her spirit, she was
quite
lovely.

"Who are you?"  Rika stood amazed that this man had shown up, seemingly out of nowhere, and performed such an unbelievable feat.  He was tall, and his sandy
blonde
hair was held back from his eyes by a shining band of silver.  It matched the armor covering his well-formed body. 
Rika ha
d
never seen such wondrous attire. 
When Rika looked up into his startling
green
eyes, she knew he was more than just a man.